Focal research areas of the professorships
General Psychology I | General Psychology II | Individual Differences and Psychological Assessment | Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy | Clinical psychology and empirical-quantitative Depth Psychology | Cognitive Neuropsychology | Organizational and Business Psychology | Educational Psychology | Psychological Methodology and Experimental Psychology | Social and Media Psychology | Social Psychology | Social and Economic Cognition I | Social and Economic Cognition II | Political Psychology | Biological Psychology
General Psychology I, Prof‘in Dr. Hilde Haider
Implicit learning processes
The focus of our chair lies in researching the acquisition and use of unconscious knowledge structures. Our current interests are related to this:
(a) The module specificity of implicit learning processes. This applies in particular to the dissociation of perceptual (visual, spatial) and motor components of implicit sequence knowledge. (b) The separation of encapsulated, module-specific associations on the one hand and the formation of intermodular predictive models regarding an action and its effects on the other. (c) The mechanisms of conscious awareness of implicit sequence knowledge. (d) The further development of methods that separate implicit and explicit processes against the background of current concepts of consciousness as well as the development of knowledge tests that are suitable for the acquisition of module-specific knowledge.
Acquisition of mathematical concepts
Mastering a mathematical concept requires the integration of procedural and conceptual knowledge. Our interest is to understand the iterative development of these two knowledge components from early, concrete application competences to abstract, flexible knowledge structures and to narrow down the time of their integration.
Against this background, we develop methods that are suitable for mapping procedural and conceptual knowledge separately in different age groups. Equally, we want to use the acquired knowledge for the generation and evaluation of development-oriented teaching concepts.
Further information is available at http://www.hf.uni-koeln.de/31543
General Psychology II, Prof. Dr. Christian Unkelbach
Information at http://www.hf.uni-koeln.de/31582
Individual Differences and Psychological Assessment, Prof’in Dr. Jutta Stahl
Human behaviour requires continuous monitoring of the extent to which the actions performed or decisions taken are appropriate for the context in question. Incorrect behaviour may have serious consequences for the person or their environment. Therefore, rapid decision-making or rapid detection of errors can be existential in order to make appropriate corrections immediately.
In our research group, we use the latest neuroscientific methods to investigate human thought processes that enable efficient control of actions and decisions. We are interested in the basic processing mechanisms as well as in the differences between individuals that can be explained by personality traits or neurological stress patterns. Furthermore, we examine whether and how an improvement of the control of actions can be achieved and how context-dependent decisions (e.g. in a moral context) affect these neuronal activation patterns. In order to answer our research questions, a constant further development of the measurement methods is necessary, which is another focus of our work.
Further information is available at http://www.hf.uni-koeln.de/34066
Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Prof. Dr. Alexander Gerlach
Information under http://www.hf.uni-koeln.de/30331
Clinical psychology and empirical-quantitative Depth Psychology, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Johannes C. Ehrenthal
We stand for a modern and integrative psychodynamic psychotherapy that claims to understand overarching treatment principles, to make them measurable, and to increase the effectiveness of psychotherapy through the individual development of therapeutic skills.
In addition to general psychotherapy research, the professorship has four main research areas:
- Diagnostics and treatment of structural disorders of personality function
- Diagnostics and treatment of complex trauma sequelae disorders
- Application of attachment theory in clinical psychology, psychotherapy and psychosomatics
- Competence development in psychotherapy
You can find more information at https://www.hf.uni-koeln.de/41478
Cognitive Neuropsychology, Prof'in Dr. Simone Vossel
How does the human brain select those stimuli that are currently relevant from the multiple inputs it receives? What is the role of expectancies for these selection processes and how are expectancies about stimuli or motor responses generated and updated? We try to answer these questions with the help of behavioural studies and computational models of reaction times, functional neuroimaging, neurostimulation, and neuropsychological studies in patients with brain damage.
Further information is available at https://www.hf.uni-koeln.de/38342?lang=2
Organizational and Economic Psychology, Prof. Dr. Hans-Georg Wolff
The research of the Chair of Organizational and Business Psychology focuses on social relations in organizations, especially the costs and benefits of professional networking behavior ("Vitamin B"), as well as investment decisions under uncertainty and the question of how cognitive processes change in the course of such projects.
Further information can be found at http://www.hf.uni-koeln.de/35954
Educational Psychology, Prof’in Dr. Ellen Aschermann
Information on projects and research at the Chair of Educational Psychology can be found here .
Psychological Methodology and Experimental Psychology, Prof. Dr. Christoph Stahl
How do we develop likes and dislikes? How does learning and memory work? The research of the Department of Psychological Methodology and Experimental Psychology deals with basic memory, learning and evaluation processes.
A description of the main research areas and an overview of the publications of the department can be found at http://methexp.uni-koeln.de/?page_id=136.
Social and Media Psychology, Jun. Prof. Dr. Kai Kaspar
Everything is in the eye of the beholder! The perception of our environment with the eyes – but also with other sensory systems – is connected before all other cognitive processes or interacts with them in a sophisticated way. For example, media content can only unfold its effect if it is sensory processed; judgments about people are strongly based on our sensory perception of our fellow human beings; action planning and execution requires a precise sensory analysis of the environment and the potential action areas; and evaluations of objects are influenced multimodally.
Accordingly, the research focus of the professorship “Social and Media Psychology“ is on various forms of interaction of basal sensory perception and higher cognitive functions in the context of social and media psychology. An interdisciplinary orientation is represented, both thematically-contextually and methodically. In particular, general psychology, health psychology and neuroscientific approaches shape many of the research projects.
Further information on completed and ongoing projects can be found at: http://kai-kaspar.jimdo.com/
Social Psychology, Prof. Dr. Andreas Glöckner
People's behavior is influenced both by internal factors such as values, preferences and characteristics, and by external factors such as other people and information in the environment. People must constantly make judgments, such as whether a person is trustworthy, and decisions, such as which of various alternatives to choose or whether to help another person.
The Department of Social Psychology investigates how people form judgments and decisions in social and economic contexts and which systematic errors occur. The focus is on (among other things) (1) the investigation of the interplay of conscious and unconscious processes. Using neural networks, for example, the emergence of intuitions is simulated. Furthermore, (2) we investigate how social factors such as stereotypes and prejudices influence these processes. Further research topics are (3) the investigation of trust, prosociality and cooperation with a special focus on cross-cultural interactions and (4) philosophy of science, methodology and open science.
You can find more information here.
Social and Economic Cognition I, Prof'in Dr. Anne Gast
Information on the research activities of the professorship can be found here.
Social and Economic Cognition II, Prof. Dr. Sascha Topolinski
The Social and Economic Cognition II group studies the (in)conscious determinants of spontaneous preferences. First, we investigate how psycholinguistic properties of language, for example the order of consonants or the mere pronounceability of words, generate affective, social, and economic attitudes. Thus, we understand the delicate interplay between language, motor functions, and emotion, and why people prefer certain personal names, brand names, or even passwords. Second, we investigate the interaction between mental quantities (e.g., numbers, brightness) with spatial positions (big and bright is right, small and dark is left).
Furthermore, we are interested in intuitive thinking and problem solving processes, insight (aha experiences), aesthetics and humor.
The basis of our research method is social cognition, in which theory-driven rigorous experimental manipulations are conducted with the goal of maximum deconfoundation of processes. We preregister our main studies and ensure maximal statistical stimulus and subject power. For our effects, p < 0.001.
Information on research activities in political psychology can be found here.
Biological Psychology, Prof. Dr. Jan Peters
Information on research activities in Biological Psychology can be found here.